I came across this quote on Pinterest the other day and just loved it…

I’m still struggling a little with keeping my camera in hand this year. But I find that my eye is still…trained?…prepped?…to see things that I would have missed before. I find that this farm life has shown me to appreciate things I wouldn’t have thought to like before. To see with new eyes. To be inspired by things I would have completely passed by.

Like buzzards…

I always associated them with death before, and that is hard.

But I’ve learned that on the farm, sometimes they are associated with LIFE. Sometimes they are the first sign of spring lambs (they go after the afterbirth!).

We actually have a mated pair that live here, and we see them every spring and summer together in the back field. Just hanging out together. They sit on the fence posts side-by-side. They stand in the field together when a strange male flies over. They preen together on the fence cross-bars after it rains.

Isn’t that crazy? Who’d have thought one of the side affects of our wildlife management would be “our very own” pair of buzzards? {smile} It’s amazing to get to see a side of them other than the roadkill-eating side.

Or how about laundry? Definitely one of my weak areas as a wife and momma and homemaker (one of many, my friends, one of many!). And yet I couldn’t help but snap a picture of laundry all over our back porch when our dryer was down–partly because I just couldn’t resist the classic feel of that tablecloth hanging on the line!

Is that silly? I don’t think I care. {smile}

There’s something about appreciate the moment…this moment…no matter what it is, that feels good, deep down in your soul. To take a deep breath and be still, and be here, and be ok.

Perhaps that is part of the growing, after so much grief.

I struggle to be still. I struggle to be quiet. Soul quiet. Calm. Peaceful. To soak in the hot summer days and rest from the constant striving. This summer I find it’s becoming a little easier. This summer I’ve tried to curl up and hide away a little more. This summer I’ve had to practice letting go more.

This summer I’ve had to learn to be ok, when I wasn’t ok.

And it turns out that I am.

The world around us lives by the calendar…but here we live by the seasons. And it’s not just the farm. The end of Summer and the beginning of Fall, are a big deal for the farm–harvest is coming and we have to get ready for winter routines. But it’s also a big deal for the family because school is coming. This is our New Year. This is our time for resolutions and goal setting and organizing and close outs and fresh starts. This is our time to re-evaluate.

How about you?

Does your summer end have big significance, or do you just keep rolling along?

By the way, we are in Back-to-School mode over here for sure. Did you get our August e-Newsletter? It had some great back-to-school printables in it! You know I love sending lunchbox love notes with our kiddos…well, I shared several FREE PRINTABLE lunchbox notes to our subscribers. You can sign up here to be on the list for next month, and you can find more back-to-school resources on our Pinterest board. (Email me if you’d like a copy of last month’s newsletter!)

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See where I’m sharing…